Cable locks are well understood and in the past have been employed to secure personal items such as skis and bicycles. The simplest such lock uses a steel cable with two closed loops formed at the cable ends and a padlock. The cable is passed around or through the object to be secured and a second stationary object. The two are then secured together at the cable loop ends by passing the cable shackle through the two loops and setting the lock. A popular variation of this approach replaces the loops and padlock with a locking device affixed to one end of the cable. Illustrative examples of such locks are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,855,824 and 4,075,878. Locks of this type typically use a keyed cylinder lock or combination lock mechanism to secure the open loop. The other cable end generally terminates with a swaged fitting appropriate for retention by the locking device. Because cable locks of this design are inherently cumbersome for bicycle riders and skiers to carry, various other designs are in use that store the cable on spring loaded reels or form the cable so that it becomes self coiling when not in use. When the problem of cable storage is addressed through reels and spring loaded winding mechanisms, the mechanisms add significant additional weight, cost and bulk to cable locks often limiting the portability and convenience of such locks. Illustrative examples of locks attempting to solve the problem of cable storage are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,922,894 and 4,126,024 in which the improvement results in comparatively heavy cable storage mechanisms that are affixed to the particular object that is to be locked and not portable for other use.
Whatever approach is used to lock and/or store cable, most cable locks depend on a single closed cable loop of fixed size to secure the personal item to itself or to another object. This design can require nearly double the cable length than is actually needed to link two objects thus adding unnecessary weight and cost over a given reach, and also results in the disadvantage of the loop being too long or too short for many applications thus preventing the consumer form easily reducing the slack between the two locked objects or substituting a longer cable where needed. In the case of snowboards or skis the fixed loop requires that an incidental opening on the bindings be present so the cable end may be passed through or some physical attachment such as an eye bolt be made to the equipment in order to secure these items with a cable lock. Whereas, an adjustable loop that could be tightened around the smallest sectional area of objects then locked, would offer increased locking options and convenience.
One device that recognizes this disadvantage and provides a partial solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,238 in which the closed loop is adjustable by increments at structures formed along the cable length. This particular lock does not adequately solve the problem as the structures simply add more fixed loops of decreasing size as well as adding considerably to the weight and manufacturing costs.
Another disadvantage of such locks is that the locking body is often much heavier than is necessary for defense against casual theft wherein the thief does not employ sophisticated tools to defeat the lock mechanism. Casual or opportunistic theft is the most common form of loss to such articles as skis and bicycles however, lock bodies typically are of a generic design for multiple applications that are then adapted for light duty cable lock use. They are generally constructed of hardened steel and are often many times stronger than the cable they are attached to. As a result, even persistent thieves rarely attack the lock body but instead simply cut the cable.
Hence, there exists a need for providing a less costly, lighter weight, lighter duty cable lock device that is storable within a separate housing so that it may be easily carried in the clothing of the consumer for portable use on sporting equipment such as skis, bicycles, snowboards, and other personal articles.